Who is Confucius?

It was just the other day, as I was writing the blog before this one, that I found myself pondering the question, ‘Who is Confucius?’ Now it might strike you as odd that such a seemingly random thought would pop into my head and then compel me to write about it. So let me explain.

As a lover of quotes I often look to them to help express whatever it is I’m trying to convey; whether that’s through my writing or in my own personal life, I have found that the words of others hold great power. Serving to inspire, encourage, provide clarity and spur us on, quotes can effortlessly and articulately sum up a feeling we might otherwise struggle to verbalise. It’s for this reason that I so often incorporate them in my work, and my previous post just so happened to open with a very well known one, “choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”.

As soon as the words came into my head and my fingers began tapping at the keyboard I knew who’d said it…or did I? My initial reaction was Confucius, but then Mark Twain clouded my judgment and before I knew it I was unable to decipher who had said what. It was only then, when I began looking into the quotes origins that I realised that perhaps the quotes we love are never really attributed to who we think.

And who do we think these people are anyway. How many times has we seen a quote plastered on a wall plaque, a birthday card or on our social feeds sporting the name ‘Confucius’ and thought little else about it? He’s the go-to guy for an uplifting, life affirming quote sure, but how much do we even know about him; who is Confucius anyway?

A philosopher whom has risen to iconic, almost mystical status, he is often credited with saying things he did not. Furthermore, despite his unmistakable moniker, Confucius would not have even answered to that name. He was in fact born Kong Qui in 551 B.C. Lu state, China. In his homeland he was best known as Zhongni, meaning Master Kong, it wasn’t until later under Latinisation that Confucius was born.

Born into a poor family Confucius led a seemingly normal life. At the age of 19, he married and a year later the couple had their first child. He worked as a shepherd and a clerk and led a humble life. Then at 23, his mother died and he sunk into mourning which would last three years. He later credited this isolation with giving him time for deep thought and intense study of history. It was during this time that his profound words began to resonate and by age 30 he was a respected teacher and soon to be appointed Minister of Justice. China’s political unrest welcomed Confucius and his message to perch the importance of morality in both personal and political life, however he later become disillusioned by the royal state and left only to return to his home during his elder years.

Relinquished from his role as royal advisory Confucius spent his final years teaching his version of the old wisdom, which was then coined Confucianism and essentially focused its teachings on all things humanistic. Concerned with earthly issues and not with the nature of souls, it is not typically described a religion in its truest sense. Yet those who followed Confucius did so in a way we might pertain to worship.

After his death in 479 B.C. Confucianism became the official imperial philosophy and his devote followers wrote The ‘Analects,’ a book which contains his thoughts and conversations. From these scriptures the Confucius quotes of today derive, often paraphrased, they represent his sentiments, yet are not exact from his teachings. So whether or not Confucius uttered the words “choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” truly remains to be seen, but what we can know is that paraphrased or not he would most likely approve, for Confucius was a man who saw himself as merely a transmitter who invented nothing.  He was simply a mouth piece if you will, for all the things we can’t quite find the right words to say ourselves.